-6 We urge that as more funds become available more money will be concentrated in the districts of greatest need. The current practice of reducing the Title I constituency to conform to available funds is unconscionable, cruel and most of all ineffective. In summation, we hold that short funding has significantly diminished Title I effectiveness. Our suggestion for improvement and change starts with providing enough money to allow the program to function. Secondly, if reading and arithmetic ability are to become the criteria for measuring the success or failure of Title I programs then the goals of the program ought to be clearly defined. The AFT has designed a new program called "Comprehensive Program for American Schools" (COMPAS) that is aimed at creating the learning environment that produces increases in mechanical skills. This program is the successor of our successful more effective schools program, and while it deals essentially with local school problems, I would be happy to answer any question in regards to this program. We have appended a copy of the COMPAS program to our testimony. We do not believe that the current Title I program has been a failure. We feel that the program itself has been failed by an administration that holds public education in contempt. While we are amenable to changes that would improve the educational opportunities for disadvantaged children, we reaffirm that with limited resources those most in need should receive priority treatment. you to continue the Title I program as the major vehicle for funding compensatory education in the United States. I would be happy to answer any question the Committee might have. We urge FOREWORD Almost as soon as the right to collective bargaining began to be won by teachers in the early 1960's, members of the American Federation of Teachers started to translate their conceptions of optimum teaching and learning conditions into the language of collective bargaining contracts. The first such design was negotiated for a selected number of elementary schools in New York City in 1964. Similar programs were incorporated into union contracts in Cleveland, Baltimore, Yonkers, Chicago and Detroit and into legislation in California and Colorado. The most famous of these programs was the More Effective Schools plan in New York. It provided for four teachers for every three classes; class size maximums of 22 (15 in kindergarten); increased supportive personnel, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, speech and hearing therapists; reading, art, drama and other specialists; more teacher aides, and greater teacher and parent involvement in administrative decision-making in the school. The More Effective Schools program was tested, retested and tested again. Such agencies as the Psychological Corporation and the American Institutes for Research found that it accelerated the learning rate of children, just as the teachers who designed it planned that it would, and the United States Office of Education chose it as "exemplary." Project READ in Chicago, the Neighborhood Education Centers in Detroit and other saturation programs showed similar successes. The demand for similar designs at all levels of education—from pre-school to the community college-prompted the Executive Council of the AFT to establish the Council for a Comprehensive Program for American Schools (COMPAS), under the chairmanship of Simon Beagle, who headed the National Council for Effective Schools for many years and is a nationally known advocate of grassroots teacher involvement in educational design and decision-making. The work of the various COMPAS committees under Mr. Beagle's tutelage has resulted in four National Designs-for the elementary school, the middle school, the high school and the community college. The AFT is proud to present its Comprehensive Program for American Schools as its answer to those critics who believe that the way to solve the problems in education is somehow to tinker with the only relationship which results in learning-that between the teacher and the taught. David Selden, President American Federation of Teachers PREFACE This report is the result of much thought and study by members in the American Federation of Teachers. The basic guidelines were first suggested by the Senior High School Committee of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), AFT Local 2. These guidelines were studied and discussed at a series of AFT regional conferences held during the 1971-72 school year. A tentative draft, including suggestions from these conferences, was prepared and submitted to AFT locals throughout the country for their reactions and suggestions. A final draft was then approved by the AFT Executive Council. Simon Beagle, Chairman National Council for a Comprehensive September, 1973 |